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Post by dusty20 on Feb 17, 2016 14:11:53 GMT -5
Looking to start my first food plot this year and looking for help. In the past I have played with small plots mostly as an experiment and such. This year I am planning on doing around an acre to start with. My new concern is insuring the seeds have good contact with the soil but are not over buried. In the past I have seen a lot of my seed get eaten by birds and such before it got a chance to germinate. I'm afraid if I bury it I will get it too deep and it will run out of energy before being able to reach the surface. I'm planning to do winter peas and soybeans.
Current plan is to mow existing wildgrasses down as low as possible then burn. Once it's burned I will use my tractor and cultivator to try to rough it up best as possible. After that I will broadcast seed and this is where I'm stuck. I have available the cultivator, a chain link fence to drag, bush hog and a snow plow. If I just drag it will this give proper cover? If I use the cultivator will this bury too deep? Could I just broadcast over the existing wildgrasses then mow as a mulch cover? I'm afraid the grasses are too thick and matted down to actually get seed to soil contact.
Any help is appreciated.
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Post by throbak on Feb 17, 2016 15:14:44 GMT -5
What are you planting  |
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Post by esshup on Feb 17, 2016 20:12:06 GMT -5
Just cutting and burning won't do much to stop the weeds and grass from overrunning your food plot once you DO get good germination.......
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 17, 2016 22:07:46 GMT -5
What are you planting I was looking for something like the whitetail institutes Power Plant which is a viney forage soy bean which uses the peas for support... I guess. I know you had some good ideas on my thread in the deer hunting section, I didn't know this section was here until today so I thought this a bit more appropriate. |
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 17, 2016 22:09:34 GMT -5
Just cutting and burning won't do much to stop the weeds and grass from overrunning your food plot once you DO get good germination....... Yea, one of the things I'm afraid of. I really don't want to have to go crazy with roundup afterwards to get it all back under control. Any suggestions? Should I just plant then cut to mulch it, if I do this would I get decent contact with the soil? |
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Post by esshup on Feb 18, 2016 1:41:26 GMT -5
I'd go with whatever throbak says - he's planted a lot more than I have! He asked what you were planting and I'll also throw in there what do you have for equipment?
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Post by throbak on Feb 18, 2016 8:25:51 GMT -5
Have you considered No Till ?? Fire and chemical burn good but when you till you will open up another seed bed , hard to control in new ground but if you try till wait and spray again when it greens up Then plant and then spray again before seed germs Or spray one time and no- till would have been best had you sprayed in the fall on new ground I usually wright off the first year and do weed control or plant something that is allopathic then frost seed clover I like clover tho . I like doing Buckwheat Then in Aug Turnips Then frost seed clover in new fields . grass is a tuff nut to crack
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Post by esshup on Feb 18, 2016 9:54:05 GMT -5
Weed/grass control is my biggest headache..... One plot that was my biggest PITA? I didn't plant it for a year. All I did was spray it, let it brown, cut turn over. Let it green up, spray, let it brown, cut, turn over. Keep repeating as many times as I could that year.
That helped a lot, but I still have weed/grass problems, but not near as bad as when I started.
In a perfect world, you would have a seed planter. I like no-till too, for the reasons stated by throbk.
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Post by steiny on Feb 18, 2016 10:30:18 GMT -5
Sounds like yo have the right equipment to do a good job, and basically a pretty good game plan.
I like to powder up my seed bed real nice with a rotary tiller to create a nice seed bed assuring good seed to soil contact. You can do the same thing with lots of passes with a disk. Powder it up, level it out, broadcast the seed, then go over it a couple times with a drag or a cultivator and you should get good germination. Beans seeds will grow even when on top of the ground, assuming they get moisture.
As mentioned by others, weeds will be a problem. You might consider just straight RR soybeans, so you can hit the plot with roundup after things get going good, killing the weeds.
Food plotting is basically small scale farming and quite a learning experience. Stay at it and enjoy the ride.
Check out the QDMA forums, you can learn a ton from those guys.
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 18, 2016 23:19:45 GMT -5
What I would love to do is no till drill but I don't have one, no idea where my local CO op is and can't see buying one for now.
Are you guys saying if I can get the current stuff out through burn or through spraying and Whatever else I could do to remove the current but do not touch the bed I won't have the weed problems compared to turning the soil over and then planting?
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Post by steiny on Feb 19, 2016 7:20:04 GMT -5
Every time you till soil, you uncover dormant weed seeds in the soil. Tilling disturbs them, gets them near surface and they grow. It gets progressively better and less weedy if you work, and deal with the weeds in the same plot year after year, but they never all go away. That's why farmers using conventional planting methods like roundup ready crops. They can spray after crops emerge, killing the weeds but not the crop.
With no-till you kill the surface weeds, then just knife your seeds into the ground with minimal soil disturbance. Good way to go, if you have the equipment to do it. It doesn't always work. On some "virgin" plots you just about have to do some cultivation to get the sod broken up, loosened up and leveled.
Keep in mind this is food plotting, you're not farming for a living. It's not the end of the world if you get some weeds or a 70% crop. That's still a bunch of good food for the wildlife that they didn't otherwise have. It's a fun hobby and you will learn as you go. Again, I would recommend anyone new to habitat work check out the QDMA website and read their forums and articles. Tons of good information their.
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 19, 2016 8:42:18 GMT -5
Every time you till soil, you uncover dormant weed seeds in the soil. Tilling disturbs them, gets them near surface and they grow. It gets progressively better and less weedy if you work, and deal with the weeds in the same plot year after year, but they never all go away. That's why farmers using conventional planting methods like roundup ready crops. They can spray after crops emerge, killing the weeds but not the crop. With no-till you kill the surface weeds, then just knife your seeds into the ground with minimal soil disturbance. Good way to go, if you have the equipment to do it. It doesn't always work. On some "virgin" plots you just about have to do some cultivation to get the sod broken up, loosened up and leveled. Keep in mind this is food plotting, you're not farming for a living. It's not the end of the world if you get some weeds or a 70% crop. That's still a bunch of good food for the wildlife that they didn't otherwise have. It's a fun hobby and you will learn as you go. Again, I would recommend anyone new to habitat work check out the QDMA website and read their forums and articles. Tons of good information their. Thanks, I will check it out! |
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Post by esshup on Feb 19, 2016 10:30:10 GMT -5
Check with the NRCS office in your county. They might have planters to rent.
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Post by steiny on Feb 19, 2016 11:53:52 GMT -5
Just a word on those no till planters from soil office.
If you're not pretty familiar with this type of equipment, they are rather complicated and won't be real easy for the average guy to set up and use. I recruited my farmer neighbor the one time I sued one.
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 19, 2016 12:25:24 GMT -5
Check with the NRCS office in your county. They might have planters to rent. I've read that, I just looked and it appears I don't have an office within 30 miles or so of my place. Any other places rent stuff like that? |
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 19, 2016 12:28:04 GMT -5
Just a word on those no till planters from soil office. If you're not pretty familiar with this type of equipment, they are rather complicated and won't be real easy for the average guy to set up and use. I recruited my farmer neighbor the one time I sued one. Maybe I'll just make one ha. I am a mechanical engineer in my M-F life, can't be that hard. I can't find one to rent and if I did it sounds like I won't be able to figure out how to use it! |
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 19, 2016 12:31:16 GMT -5
Every time you till soil, you uncover dormant weed seeds in the soil. Tilling disturbs them, gets them near surface and they grow. It gets progressively better and less weedy if you work, and deal with the weeds in the same plot year after year, but they never all go away. That's why farmers using conventional planting methods like roundup ready crops. They can spray after crops emerge, killing the weeds but not the crop. With no-till you kill the surface weeds, then just knife your seeds into the ground with minimal soil disturbance. Good way to go, if you have the equipment to do it. It doesn't always work. On some "virgin" plots you just about have to do some cultivation to get the sod broken up, loosened up and leveled. Keep in mind this is food plotting, you're not farming for a living. It's not the end of the world if you get some weeds or a 70% crop. That's still a bunch of good food for the wildlife that they didn't otherwise have. It's a fun hobby and you will learn as you go. Again, I would recommend anyone new to habitat work check out the QDMA website and read their forums and articles. Tons of good information their. That is what I'm excited about, it's a new hobby that I can try to perfect over time. For all I know it could turn out to be a disaster but it should be fun! Not that I need an excuse to be outside but any chance I get to do something productive (hopefully) makes it all the better. |
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Post by esshup on Feb 19, 2016 18:17:06 GMT -5
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Post by dusty20 on Feb 19, 2016 23:38:01 GMT -5
Those are pretty sweet. Still not exactly giving them away ha. |
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Post by Jamie Brooks 1John5:13 on Feb 20, 2016 11:03:32 GMT -5
Dusty, I am also planting 1.5ac of "Power Plant". I'm going to cut existing growth low and then spray it to kill it off. Then I will disk it, fertilize and disk again at 2". Then I'll seed it and use a real drag harrow to cover up.
I'm buying a disk, 8' wide harrow and boom sprayer. I will be more than happy to help you in anyway that I can. What part of the state do you live in?
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